Measurement of D* Mesons in Jets from p + p Collisions at sqrt s = 200 GeV

We report the measurement of charged D* mesons in inclusive jets produced in proton-proton collisions at a center of mass energy {radical}s = 200 GeV with the STAR experiment at RHIC. For D* mesons with fractional momenta 0.2 < z < 0.5 in inclusive jets with 11.5 GeV mean transverse energy, the production rate is found to be N(D*{sup +} + D*{sup -})/N(jet) = 0.015 {+-} 0.008(stat) {+-} 0.007(sys). This rate is consistent with perturbative QCD evaluation of gluon splitting into a pair of charm quarks and subsequent hadronization.